Vito Colucci, a former Stamford police officer who went undercover in the 1970s to reveal corruption in the city's police department, will speak about his book, "Rogue Town," at the Ferguson Library on Wednesday, Feb. 20. less

Vito Colucci, a former Stamford police officer who went undercover in the 1970s to reveal corruption in the city's police department, will speak about his book, "Rogue Town," at the Ferguson Library on ... more

Photo: Contributed Photo

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Vito Colucci, a former Stamford police officer who went undercover in the 1970s to reveal corruption in the city's police department, will speak about his book, "Rogue Town," at the Ferguson Library on Wednesday, Feb. 20. less

Vito Colucci, a former Stamford police officer who went undercover in the 1970s to reveal corruption in the city's police department, will speak about his book, "Rogue Town," at the Ferguson Library on ... more

Photo: Contributed Photo

Author and ex-cop to discuss Stamford's dark past at Ferguson Library

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"Rogue Town," Vito Colucci's book about working undercover to expose corruption and organized crime in Stamford from 1965 to 1985, only hit the shelves a few weeks ago.

But the author already has enough material for a second book.

Readers -- from ex-cops and relatives of ex-cops to former city officials and residents past and present -- have been flooding Colucci's inbox with their own stories about those dark days in the City That Works.

Just recently, Colucci got an email from a former Stamford Fire Department official who told of department employees who had falsified inspections and covered up arson.

"I get a couple of messages a day," Colucci said in a phone interview last week. "The response is more than I could've ever imagined. There's so many people who knew about corruption."

Some people have warned Colucci not to dig up the past. However, judging by the response to "Rogue Town" -- and the large turnout expected for his talk at the Ferguson Libary on Wednesday, Feb. 20 -- there's even more people who d0n't want to forget.

"It's a part of history," said Colucci, now a private investigator and owner of Colucci Investigations in Stamford. "It has to be known."

Co-written with true crime author Dennis N. Griffin, "Rogue Town" reads like the HBO TV series "The Wire." Colucci is the lead actor, a young cop who encounters a cast of libertine villains: high ranking police officers who operate a statewide drug ring; racketeers who bribe cops with gambling trips to Las Vegas; crime families who play politicians like marionettes.

Disgusted by what he sees, Colucci vows to bring the corruption to light. It's a decision that lands him in an undercover role, wearing a wire to gather evidence against senior officers in the Stamford Police Department and feeding sensitive information to Anthony Dolan, a Stamford Advocate reporter who exposes the crooked officials in the newspaper.

But Colucci isn't the only hero: Honest officials from across Stamford fight to clean up the city, putting their livelihoods, and sometimes their lives, at risk.

"One of the reasons I wrote the book was so all these guys could get the recognition they deserve," Colucci said.

"Rogue Town," which was released last month, has resonated with readers not just in Stamford, but across the country, Colucci said. He owes the popularity of the book to the widespread interest in true crime stories -- stories that are hardly unique to the author's hometown.

"You don't need to be a Stamford resident to appreciate what happened in Stamford," he said.

That was true of former president Ronald Reagan. After winning the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting, Dolan was tapped to serve as the then president's chief speech writer. In that role, the former Advocate reporter helped influence Reagan's nationwide crack down of organized crime.

As for the Stamford scandal, 15 officials resigned or were fired. Several more were indicted and convicted. Still, Colucci said, citizens need to remain vigilant: corruption and organized crime can always creep up again.

"I'm not saying officials now are doing anything wrong, but when you hear rumors and innuendos, you have to look into it," he said. "All you need is a few people getting into office to take advantage of their position and connections and before you know it, you've got an epidemic of corruption."